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Monday, December 30, 2019

Sad, sad news tonight that former Mayor Mike Swaim died earlier this month.

In print on December 31st

With the redevelopment of the mushroom plant in process, it's very much worth reading his 2001 piece on it and associated labor practices. This is a history of the site we should remember. Recalling his engaged advocacy is fitting as a kind of memorial also.

For over twenty years I have driven by that foul smelling mushroom plant on the east side of Salem, thinking, “How can people stand to live near this putrid smelling place?” Never once did I ever stop to ask, “How can people stand to work behind those closed doors, which shut out the light, but not the smell?”

However, the most offensive smell emanating from that plant is not from the manure in which the mushrooms are grown, but rather from the abusive attitude and conditions under which the Pictsweet company forces their employees to work.

As Mayor of Salem, I was recently invited by some of the plant workers to speak with them about these conditions.

In doing so, I never imagined that I’d end up with the President of the Oregon State Senate publicly attacking me in the local press. Nor did I imagine I’d find myself nearly pinned to a padlocked chain link gate by a 16 wheeler semi, along with Cesar Chavez’s son-in-law, Arturo Rodriguez, 1,000 miles from City Hall.

The same year, in 1926 "An All-American City"
with "no foreign element"

I have not seen a history here of zoning and the Planning Commission. Maybe one exists. At the moment, I want to sketch out some of that history from the mid-1920s. Through newspaper clippings we will trace out some of that history of
zoning and its exclusionary intent.* The larger cultural matrix of
exclusionary interests will be clear also. I am not going to argue that zoning is only a tool for exclusion. But exclusionary ends are an important ingredient in the early development of zoning here, and we should take care to center this in our understanding of the way zoning functions. We have sidestepped some of these questions in our contemporary language about aesthetics, the ways buildings and neighborhoods look, about allowable uses in them, and in our rhetoric of "neighborhood character." As we consider new zoning through Our Salem, more specifically consider how we implement more restrictive or less restrictive new standards for missing middle housing, and consider the exigencies of a Climate Action Plan, the use and misuse of early zoning should be on our minds also.

But if you are, here's a start. (This is really just a long footnote, be warned, and it is not yet very conclusive.)

Here in Salem the phrase clearly comes from larger urban areas, and it really is associated with streetcars before automobile cars.* There does not seem to be a meaningful usage here in the 1890s or earlier, and it's only in the early 1900s that it appears regularly.

Friday, December 27, 2019

Could there be any clearer expression of the way our autoism mystifies and obfuscates than the front page story today?

For families and friends who must mourn, it is of course an awful thing to revisit the original violence and facts of an untimely road death.

There is good reason to want to celebrate the victim with a kind of encomium.

With the Carousel right there at the end of State Street, and Carousel staff as witness and first responder, the crash was also located at an important cultural node and geographical point in Salem.

As a tribute to the pleasures of daily strolling in the city it has significance.

There are many reasons an encomium and wider feature story makes sense. And it is genuinely moving.

Front page today

But we should not forget that the victim fell in an action by a driver on a downtown street. It was not a sudden illness, a meteor falling from the sky, or even a car falling from the sky, something truly accidental and tragic we used to call an "act of God."

But because the piece uses raw counts of rides, and focuses on what Ride Salem representatives themselves say, it does not illuminate as much as it might.

Industry and advocates often cite rides per bike per day as a key metric.* Earlier it had seemed that Salem had between one-third and one-half of a ride per bike per day. Industry standard right now is about one ride per bike per day. Portland's system operates right about there. Eugene's started at three rides per bike per day, and was an uncommon success by these measures.

Both Portland and Eugene's systems have not only more bikes but also more stations, and these make possible a larger number of trips. Rental bikes are especially useful when you can make one-way trips and do not have to make a loop to return the bike to your starting point.

Still, since Eugene is about the same size as Salem, even though it is a college town and has a stronger tradition of bicycling, it is an appropriate comparison.

The point about Salemites needing "time to learn" about the bike rental system and about biking points to culture and that tradition, as if it's our fault we aren't using the bikes. This appeal to the mysteries of culture is also a term less helpful in the comparison.

And it deflects from other factors.

A "virtual" hub and station on Ferry and Commercial
from late summer - but who will use it very often?
Essentially this is an ornament.

More than custom and culture, it's high quality bike lanes. The downtown stations are set on a downtown street system that remains very hostile to biking.

Monday, December 23, 2019

As the City publicizes the "safer crossings" program, it reinforces the false equivalence between those in fast and powerful cars and other vulnerable road users. "Nothing can substitute for personal caution," they say. Not slower speeds and less driving?

The rhetoric still minimizes that it is the drivers who employ lethal force and a "dangerous instrumentality." It redirects and makes potential victims responsible for their safety. "It's still up to you..." (and if you get hit, it's your own damn fault).

We've seen this before. A deadpan piece of satire from 100 years ago today is not in fact so distant from our current recommendations.

Saturday, December 21, 2019

Some recent demolitions have seemed gratuitous or hasty. With Le Breton Hall at Fairview, Howard Hall at the Blind School, and Belluschi's First National Bank, it has seemed like owners and the City could have tried harder to keep them around.

Especially when there is no plan for replacement with a new building, trashing an old building just seems like a waste.

Other demolitions are more reasonable. When there are strong plans for replacement, and a building has had a long and useful life, even when we feel
the loss of the old, the transitions take place in the normal course of a
city's life. The change is purposeful and directed, not
just a leveling and waste. This regeneration is creative also.

The Marion Car Park will be replaced by a new hotel. And now, the YMCA and Court Apartments will be replaced by a new Y complex. Maybe you will feel otherwise, but it seems right to recognize the loss, even to mourn a little, and then to move on to the new.

The old YMCA, sometime in the 1920s when it was new
(via The Mill - I've lost the citation and will update later)

One detail that has not been foregrounded much is how closely associated was the YMCA building campaign with the Livesley Tower. Hops magnate T. A. Livesley drove both projects.

Monday, December 16, 2019

As the year winds down, three things this year seem clearly more important than the others.*

The SRC finally reached an end; Cherriots started weekend and evening service; and ODOT transitioned to a new agency head for more of the same, without also making any basic changes in philosophy or approach.

SRC Record of Decision

Headline in February

Back in February Council held a showdown on the Salem River Crossing after a remand from LUBA and a passive disinclination to do anything about it for all of the previous year in 2018. But the prospect of having to pay several million back the Feds focused matters and prompted an on-the-record decision.

Council chose not to make a new set of land use changes and chose instead to recommend a "no build" record of decision.

Thus ended this particular process for the Salem River Crossing and one idea of a third bridge.

Probably a river crossing concept will return as its politics are popular in some circles, but the scope and magnitude of our climate emergency, as well as the cost of a giant bridge and highway, together make it less likely that it will get very far, let alone ever be built.

This is nearly certain to mean that the agency remains committed to autoism and fails to move quickly - or even at all - on our climate emergency and on safety. It's a commitment to business as usual and to 20th century standards. It's a commitment to more driving and more driving deaths. The new Highway Head is the same old highway head.

As far as lasting things of significance, these three are without a doubt the top transportation stories of the year.

Friday, December 13, 2019

As an instance of pop culture, consumerism, and food trends the new burger joint in Keizer is an undeniable thing, maybe a big thing. While the paper did not do a big Black Friday package, they did send what looked to be a six person team for saturation coverage on the restaurant opening. Portland media also sent individuals and some teams. (In this the business outsourced much of its marketing and look how much they got for free! And of course, even this note reinforces that in a very small way. There's no bad press in that regard.)

Front page today

Still, while Greta is Time's Person of the Year, the story here erases all the people in cars waiting at a drive-thru with idling motors, that the restaurant is a shrine to cheap beef, and all the travel and trips the opening induced. It's a kind of carbon pollution bingo, really.

A couple days ago

In addition to the other angles it should be a transportation story and a climate story about our wilful disregard for emissions.

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

There was a lull in publishing updates from the City Manager for a couple of months, but this week a flurry for October and November appeared. In them is very interesting news about State Street downtown: It is poised to go two-way next year!

The update refers to the project as "State Street Streetscape," which I read as a conflation of the Streetscape study for sidewalks and the Central Salem Mobility study. But when they say "two-waying," that signals we are talking about the Mobility Study's recommendation, not merely the sidewalk plan.

The final plan, adopted in August of 2013, selected Alternative 2, for an old-school cross-section of two auto travel lands, one auto center turn pocket, and two standard bike travel lanes in the door zones of parallel parking along the curb.

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Will the next couple of years be when we finally decide what we are going to do about a citywide bike network? Assessing one Neighborhood Greenway and figuring out potential next steps on new ones have been topics at neighborhood associations this fall.

Highland Neighborhood Association meets on Thursday the 12th, and it sounds like the new speed humps on the Winter-Maple Greenway are not as effective as neighbors would like.

[S]everal neighbors had some concerns about the speed humps that had been installed on Maple St. N.E. and how it was felt that the bumps were actually not helping the area in the way it was understood it would as traffic has not slowed down. A new traffic study is being done and several others have been done in the area and once the results are compiled, [City Traffic Engineer Kevin] Hottman has promised to return to the Highland Neighborhood meeting and give a more thorough report. This will probably be sometime around March of 2020 and once the board has been notified, he will be placed on the agenda.

So this is something to watch. So far we have not much installed traffic diverters, and it may be that we need more seriously to consider them or other stronger forms of traffic calming.

Advocates for the project do not seem to have considered how car-dependent is the area. Or perhaps they have, and its remoteness is a feature. But if we wanted to be able to connect people to services, exiling them out to this rather rural area of undeveloped Salem does not meet that goal. It's really isolated out there! And it will be a while yet before the adjacent land is built out.

The report's lead image is a rendering of the new art for the Police Station. On the next page is the cricket/grasshopper bolted on to one of our alley building walls.

Public art should be accessible, not conceptual. Why don't we have more critter art?! People love the Peace Mosaic. If we want art that is "welcoming and livable," we should have more art that offers easy delights.

Addendum, on Transit

So Kansas City's new fareless transit system's been in the news. Cherriots is of course distinct from City Council, but I don't think I am going to write about it separately, so here's a brief clip and note.

Saturday, December 7, 2019

In the news a while ago, but online only and for a week now not in the print edition, was an interesting note about an injury in the tunnel under the railroad between Parrish and North High. It's about a lawsuit against the School District and City, and it seems indisputable that the underpass is generally neglected and poorly maintained. Whether this rises to the level of negligence a jury will have to say if it's not settled first, but it is interesting that the City apparently agreed to maintain it, and they have hardly done this. There are no other lawful crossings between Marion Street and D Street, and the tunnel serves a small but useful purpose.

The lawsuit comes more than four years after the then-11-year-old boy was instructed by his teacher during his fourth-period physical education class to go across the parking lot and through the tunnel to the high school football field so they could continue their course in football and related field activities....

At the bottom of the ramp that enters the tunnel, two steel posts were implanted in the ground along with the remnants and metal footing of a third post.

At the time, the asphalt along the ramp and in the tunnel was cracked, uneven and in disrepair, according to the lawsuit.

As the student was running down the ramp, his foot struck the raised metal piece of the third post remnant, and he fell....

When the tunnel was built, the city of Salem agreed to maintain the entire underpass and structure, including the tunnel, according to the lawsuit.

But the city failed to abide by this agreement, [the lawyer] said. They failed to provide proper lighting in the tunnel, maintain the sidewalk and surrounding area, warn those using the tunnel of possible hazards and regularly inspect the area to ensure safety

See more discussion of underpasses here. People advocate for under- and overpasses, but they are trouble to maintain and keep safe, and part of the context here is not just the question of negligence, but how we create barriers inside the city with rail and high speed roads like highways and arterials, and what ongoing resources are necessary to sustain the crossings as useful everyday. We often don't budget adequately for future maintenance obligations or consider them in the initial capital costs of infrastructure.

Friday, December 6, 2019

You might recall a year ago, Salem Area Trail Alliance hosted an open house for the trails along Croisan Creek and around Sprague. They drew attention to one trail in particular, along the alignment for a future extension of Croisan Scenic Way.

This month they are trying to rally support to make the trail permanent.

Call to action for the Croisan Trail! There will be a presentation about the Croisan Trail at the SWAN neighborhood association meeting tomorrow, December 3rd, 6:30 pm at Salem Heights Elementary School. The action item is to get a motion to go to City Council to ask that the right of way where the trail sits be taken off the transportation plan to prevent future development along that corridor, and preserve it for recreation. Please show up if you can-- warm bodies are needed!

Councilor Nordyke attended the meeting and has expressed an initial level of enthusiasm.

Downtown commercial buildings in the Historic District are generally leased and not owner-occupied, so it's not like we make owner occupancy some big deal in historic preservation.

Still, the Viesko House is very minor, it's not a "high style" exemplar, and it is possible to wonder what its designation really accomplished. It's not like we now have a published history of Viesko's building activity. There is no sense of any new historical narrative or analysis that the house instantiates and presents to the wider public.

Mostly it's a private benefit for the owner, who in the case of the Viekso house either flipped it or rented it out, and the designation makes redevelopment less likely.

The City is undertaking an update to the Historic Preservation Plan and last night there was an Open House at the Mill. I missed the announcement, but I'm not sure I have much to say. Still, I worry that the Plan will be understood as a way to carve out exclusions and freeze more areas from HB 2001 and fourplex legalization and other changes we might make as part of "Our Salem." It is not adequately connected with our other conversations on transit, on the comprehensive plan, on carbon pollution and climate, and on equity.

On 12/4/19, shortly before 11am, Salem Police responded to a report of a vehicle crash involving a pedestrian at the intersection of Front St and State Street. Witnesses reported the pedestrian was struck as he was attempting to cross the northbound lanes of Front street, heading from the Riverfront park area. The involved vehicle, a black Ford Explorer, was exiting the Riverfront Carousel parking lot, located at State street and Front street, and was turning left to proceed northbound onto Front street, when the pedestrian was hit. Witnesses provided first aid to the pedestrian prior to emergency responders arriving. The pedestrian was prounced deceased at the scene.

The involved driver remained on scene and is cooperating with the investigation. Investigators are working to identify and contact the next of kin for the pedestrian. The cause of the crash is still under investigation. There have been no citations or arrests made.

And an update with the name of the person killed, but not the driver:

Salem Police investigators have identified the pedestrian involved in the fatal crash on December 4th as 72 yr old Salem resident Rodric Kenyon Drolshagen. Drolshagen was walking his dog across front street, at State Street, and was in a marked crosswalk, when he was struck by a vehicle and later pronounced deceased at the scene. His dog was not injured and is currently in the process of being reunited with family members.

The investigation is continuing and no citations or arrests have been made.

In headlines on their initial stories, both Statesman Journal and Salem Reporter erase the driver, seemingly treating the death as the result of some mysterious process rather than car violence:

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Back in the heady days of the early aughts, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance in Portland (now the Street Trust) published a "Blueprint for Better Biking."

Blueprint for Better Biking (2005)*

A little later in the aughts, taking the document as a template, a group of Salemites, at that time working as a "chapter" of the BTA, which still considered itself something of a statewide group, formulated a version for Salem.

Many of the concepts were then taken up into "Bike and Walk Salem," the walking and biking update to the Transportation System Plan adopted in 2012. So the document served a real purpose and was not at all lost effort.

Still, the document is ten years old this year, and it is interesting to consider how much progress we might have made. In that regard it might be a little disappointing.

Two pieces on the front page today show our problem with crash reporting, grammar, and the attribution of fault in motor vehicle crashes.

Passive voice and erasing the driver

In a note about the horrific crash on Cordon Road, in part because fault has not been assigned by law enforcement, the drivers' participation and responsibility is erased and even evaded.

a Chevrolet passenger van made a left-hand turn and was struck by a Ford F-350 pickup truck

But better:

While driving a Chevrolet passenger van Pablo Gaspar-Ezequiel made a left-hand turn and collided with Cory Kudna driving a Ford F-350 pickup truck

This also avoids assigning blame to one driver or the other, but it also points to the fact the people were in charge of the vehicles, even when one or both of them made catastrophic errors.

By contrast, a piece about the sentencing of a driver in a DUI case, where guilt has already been adjudicated, is unambiguous about the grammatical and moral subject.

Active voice with driver as subject

But even when fault is not yet clear and there is not a morally clear cut case between bad driver and victims, it is still true that people are operating cars and we should be clear about their responsibility in that operation, even when errors occur.

About Us

The Breakfast Blog is about bicycling and the built environment here in Salem, focusing mostly on transportation but with significant servings of bike fun, land use, planning, and design. And other miscellaneous stuff.
Write: breakfastonbikes [at] gmail [dot] com